Rail bonding



Roland 0. Hartman, Berea, Ohio, and John LqR'AlL BONDING Richards, deceased, late of Cleveland, Ohio, by Vera M., Richards, executrix, Cleveland,-hio, assignors to 'The American Steel and Wire Company of New Jersey, a corporation'of New J rs Application April 11, 1944, Serial No. 530,54

* v 2 Qlaims. '(Cl. 28720.2)

This invention relates to theelectrical bondin of abutting railroad rail ends by the use of an electrical conductor fOr spanning the space between the rail ends and some means for fastening the ends of this conductor to the sides of the rail ends. Since the rails must be bonded in the field it is desirable that the mentioned means be capable of application by readily portable equipment and long ago this requirement led to the suggestion of resorting to the exothermic welding art as a medium for providing this means.

The bonding of railroad rail ends by the exothermic welding art may be done by positioning the conductor ends adjacent the rail end sides and providing molds for confining molten metal 5 to the conductor ends and adjacent rail sides and having sprues into which such molten metal is discharged when produced by an exothermic welding mixture reacted in crucibles positioned above the sprues and having teeming ports through which the molten metal falls into these sprues. Unfortunately, this practice has the disadvantages that the molten welding metal provided in this fashion by the prior art does not alloy well With the rail end sides or with the conductor ends, the resulting welds produced by such metal are prone to contain unduly large blow holes, and this is a great disadvantage, the resulting welds, which constitute bodiesof metal joining the conductor ends to the rail end sides balance copper, which is very well alloyed with the rail side at the junction therewith and with v the conductor strand end, and relatively few blowholes will form as compared to the number and' size of those found when the prior art teachings,

are followed. A most important result is that; the weld body having the described alloy composition will adequately endure the types of vi-' bration encountered in connection with rail bond-- ing assemblies, and it will have an adequately high tensile strength to properly withstand the impact of dragging train equipment Without-rupturing.

The following tabulated data gives specific examples of exothermic welding mixtures providing welding metal having compositions within the ranges disclosed herein.

Weld Metal Thermlt Mixture Per Per Per Per Per Cent Per Cent Per Cent Per Cent Cent Cent Cent N i-Al Ou-Ni-Al Gu-Ni-Al Cent Cu Ni CuO NizOz Alloy (1) Alloy (2) Alloy (3) Al V 65 29. 6 43. 2 l6. 7 l0. 5 35 65 24. 8 48. 6 14 9 11. 7 25 75 17.45 58. 45 10 5 13.8

Alloy (1) 60% Ni-% Al.

Alloy (2) 54.4% Cul0.9% Ni34.7% Al.

Alloy 3 25% Oll37.5% Ni37.5% A1 in the fashion of the more usual terminals, do

not adequately endure the vibration encountered in railroad rails and anything attached to them.

- Another fault with the weld metal produced by the prior art is that it does not have a very high tensile strength to resist being struck by dragging In this tabulated data it will be noted that free aluminum is included in. the case of those mixtures of the higher nickel oxide contents.

This is done because it aids proper crushing of the various alloys to the degree required to produce a mixture having an adequately small particle size, the amount of aluminum required to react with the nickel oxide being so great that it would produce too much malleability if used in alloy form completely.

The various thermit mixtures all provide welds having the new and unexpected results previously mentioned.

A specific example of abutting rail ends bonded in the manner described is illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a side view; and V Figure: 2. is a section taken from the line II"-II in Figure 1.

More specifically, these drawings show the sides I of the heads of abutting rail ends With a. con ductor 2 of the stranded type having its ends fixed to the sides I by bodies 3 made of the alloy involved by the present invention and-generally contoured for the purpose oftdefiecting dragging train equipment as is the fashion in the case of the more usual type of rail'ibondterminal. I

We claim: 1. A bond connecting adjacent track rails com- ;prising a conductor disposed alongside thera-ils REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name a Date 538,904 Faulkner. ;j Mayfl, 1895 802,463 Mead Oct; 24, 1905 1,336,475 Mead Apr. 13, 1920 2,150,045 Ahlert Mar. '7, 1939 2,251,820 Caldwell Aug. 5, 1941 2,318,604 Febrey May 11, 1943 OTHER REFERENCES Technical -Information, Monel Metal and Nickel Alloys, TA 490" .I66, copy 2 (Div. 3), revised April 15, 1936. 7

Development and Research Dept., The International Nickel Co. Inc., 67 Wall St., New York, N. Y., Bulletin 'I-1.

Publication: welding-. Handbook (1942), pub. by Amer. Welding Society, 33 W. 39th St., New Yorl ,'N. Y. (Copy Div. 14'.) 

